Barda
|affiliation = [[Royal family] Palace guards|loveinterest = Lindal (wife)}} Barda is one of the three main protagonists in the Deltora Quest series. He is a large and powerful man who accompanies Lief and Jasmine through their adventures. He is now the chief of the palace guards in Del. He is also the husband of Lindal. History ''The Forests of Silence'' Barda is the son of Min, a palace nurse in the Palace of Del, and nurse to prince Endon and his best friend Jarred. Barda became a palace guard while there in his youth and remained there until the attack of The Shadow Lord. On the night the Shadow Lord invaded, Min claimed to have overheard whispers and believed that there was evil in the palace. She told this to Endon, but he did not listen and told her she had been dreaming. Within an hour, she was dead. Barda, realising that she had been killed for what she knew, fled the palace during the feast celebrating the anniversary of Endon's coronation and made his way instinctively to the forge. Some time later, he awoke to see four figures standing by the forge gate, two of which shortly left. Barda approached the two that remained but was treated with a blow to the head that knocked him unconscious for some time. Hours later Barda awoke to find that the couple no longer feared him, as he had rambled on about his fear and the danger he was in. The couple, Jarred and Anna, claimed to have been hurrying the King and Queen away into hiding and asked his help in restoring the Belt of Deltora when the time came. Barda readily agreed. At first it was decided that Barda and Jarred would go together on the quest when the time came, but this became impossible after Jarred was crippled by a falling tree when Lief was ten years old. After that Barda wanted to go on alone, but Jarred and Anna insisted on allowing Lief to accompany him, to fulfil his father's pledge. Although Barda didn't like it, he agreed to it on the condition that Lief be allowed to take risks and explore the streets of Del. Barda also agreed to guard Lief on the streets and keep him from harm. Often Lief would get in trouble and Barda would have to save him in secret: often by dropping a rope for Lief to climb or distracting Grey Guards so Lief could sneak by them. Barda disguised himself as a beggar living outside the forge at this time and Lief never realised that Barda was anything but a ragged beggar and thought that all his escapes had simply been good fortune and skill. Since the beginning of the Shadow Lord's rule Barda had disguised himself as a beggar who haunted the forge gates. This allowed him to hear information which was vital for the quest, for no one cared if a half-wit beggar heard them talking. It was Barda's information which alerted Jarred and Anna that the quest could finally begin. On Lief's sixteenth birthday, his parents sent him on a quest to find the gems of the Belt of Deltora. They also gave him a companion; to his surprise, Barda. Barda originally disliked the thought of going with Lief, as he thought of him as a reckless child that would undoubtedly get the two in trouble eventually. But he eventually warmed to him, and to the idea of having a third companion. Barda was initially suspicious and skeptical of Jasmine, even after she rescued them from the Wennbar in First Wood, as he did not believe that she could truly speak to the animals and trees as she claimed and thought her to be mad. This diminishes after Jasmine saves both Lief and Barda from Gorl by convincing one of the trees to sacrifice a limb to kill Gorl. During the confrontation with Gorl Barda is seriously wounded in the chest by Gorl, but is brought back to life by Lief and the Lilies of Life. The Lake of Tears Barda and Lief soon learned that adjusting to a new comrade would not be easy, as Jasmine proved belligerent in arguing against traveling through the sorceress Thaegan's territory on the way to the Lake of Tears. Refusing to take the longer route through the Os-Mine Hills, Barda informed Jasmine that she could take their route or she could return to the Forests, also denying her insistence that Kree and Filli had votes in any such decision. The group soon ran across the first challenge presented by the sorceress' territory, a giant bird trapped in the shape of a man by Thaegan's sorcery who forced the companions to answer riddles in order to cross a bridge he guarded. Lief nearly perished due to the challenge, but unwittingly discovered the means of breaking Thaegan's spell and freeing the bird, who later came to Lief's aid after the bridge began to collapse beneath him. Moving on, the group were forced to hide as a troop of Grey Guards appeared on their route, and Barda was stunned to recognize that their prisoner was a Ralad. Unwilling to leave the prisoner in the Guards' clutches, the companions effected a rescue only to be pursued by the Guards, whom they seemingly eluded by making their way into a grove of sweetplum trees. Leaving their new friend to rest, the companions stumbled across what appeared to be a simple dwelling, only to find it surrounded by a ring of quicksand. Rescued by the elderly inhabitants of the cottage, they were taken into their home and soon found themselves comfortable. However, the power of the Topaz revealed the true nature of their hosts to Lief who soon used it to clear Barda and Jasmine's senses of the deceiving magic. Realizing that they had been lured into a trap by Jin and Jod, two of Thaegan's children, Barda and the companions attempted to escape, with Barda struggling due to having taken some of the villains' sleeping potion. Outside, the trio found themselves stymied by the quicksand trap and an arrangement of lilypads marking the only safe path, only for Jin and Jod to appear in pursuit of their friend the Ralad. His appearance enabled Lief to determine a means of crossing, and the group managed to escape while Jasmine was wounded after insuring that Jin and Jod would be caught in their own trap. Barda soon learned that their new companion's name was Manus, who like the other Ralads was mute due to Thaegan's curse, and that he had been Jin and Jod's prisoner for years after being captured on his way to Del. Manus willingly led his rescuers to Raladin only to find it apparently deserted, with all fearing that the other Ralads had been taken to the Shadowlands as slaves. However, the clever builders were revealed to be in hiding within a cavern they had built beneath their city after Manus began playing a flute. After spending some days with the Ralads, Barda and his companions-Manus included-set out for the Lake of Tears despite the fears of the Ralads. They soon found those fears justified, as the lake was a morass of disgusting creatures and a monstrous beast known as Soldeen, who later considered trading the gem they were seeking for Manus' staying as his companion. The group refused, and during the struggle the Topaz cleared Soldeen's mind and he agreed to help them, only for Thaegan to appear and attack. Barda's attack on her and those of his companions proved fruitless, and it fell to Kree to fatally wound the sorceress. The lake and its inhabitants were soon restored to their rightful states as the city and inhabitants of D'Or, who invited the companions to stay with them but were turned down in favor of returning to Raladin, whose inhabitants could now speak. City of the Rats The Shifting Sands Dread Mountain The Maze of the Beast The Valley of the Lost Return to Del ''Cavern of The Fear'' The Isle of Illusion The Shadowlands Dragon's Nest Shadowgate Isle of the Dead The Sister of the South He also helps them on their third and last journey and quest to defeat The Shadow Lord and The Four Sisters. While he is helping Lief find the Sister of the South, he is blinded by a bright flash of light. After the fight, Lief hugs him and Barda, in wonder, makes Lief hold his hand. He realised that a gem - the opal, Lief remembers - helps his sight, and Lief allows him to use the gem to restore his vision. He later marries Lindal and has six children with her who all end up being taller than their own parents and are almost identical. Anime Barda's role and personality in the anime was pimarily the same as the book, with one major change. Barda remained in the palace even after his mother's death, and fought the Ak-Baba with the rest of the guards. One knocked him over the palace walls, thus allowing him to survive. Later, during the battle between the Shadow Lord and the Resistance, Barda encountered the same Ak-Baba while defending the Topaz. He managed to kill it and picked up the gem which then gave him a vision of his mother, who said she was proud of him. Physical appearance Barda is tall, with dark hair and a dark beard. Due to his training as a palace guard, he is very strong and fit, and continues to hone his skills while 'guarding' the young Lief when he stays out after sunset in Del when the Grey Guards are prowling about. He is a tower of strength, and never gives up on the quest to find the gems for the Belt of Deltora. Personality Abillities Relationships Relatives Appearances Trivia References See also Category:Characters Category:Main characters Category:Males Category:Protagonists Category:Del (tribe) Category:Deltorans Category:Post-Adin Deltorans Category:Palace guards Category:Palace guard captains